CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The Harvard women's hockey team, the two-time reigning Ivy League and ECAC Hockey regular-season champion, will play 29 games, including 18 at Bright Hockey Center, in the upcoming 2009-10 season. The Crimson will skate in 22 ECAC Hockey contests, five non-conference games against Hockey East and WCHA opponents and the 32nd Women's Beanpot.

Harvard faces five teams that qualified for the 2009 NCAA tournament and six teams that were ranked in the top 10 in the final 2008-09 USCHO.com Division I poll.

The Crimson will prepare for the 32nd season of Harvard women's hockey by playing an exhibition game against the McGill Oct. 24. The season officially begins with a road trip to Colgate and Cornell Oct. 30-31. The team will then return to Bright to begin a five-game homestand, starting with games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence Nov. 6-7. A week later, the Crimson will skate against Quinnipiac and Princeton Nov. 13-14, before playing New Hampshire in a non-conference contest Nov. 18.

Harvard will visit Yale and Brown Nov. 20-21, before closing out the month of November at home against Dartmouth Nov. 25. The squad will welcome perennial NCAA contender Minnesota to Bright for games on consecutive nights Dec. 4-5, and will then host Connecticut Dec. 8 before a month off from competition for final exams.

After the New Year, the team hits the road to face Princeton and Quinnipiac Jan. 8-9, and then heads back to Cambridge for four home dates against Cornell Jan. 15, Colgate Jan. 16, Union Jan. 22 and Rensselaer Jan. 23. A trip to Dartmouth Jan. 29 interrupts a stretch of home games, as the Crimson will be back at Bright Hockey Center to host Providence Jan. 30.

The month of February begins with the Beanpot, hosted by Harvard at Bright. The Crimson will meet Boston College, a rematch of last year's title game, Feb. 2, while Northeastern will face Boston University in the opening round. Harvard will remain on home ice to face ECAC Hockey and Ivy League rivals Brown and Yale Feb. 5-6, before hosting the second round of the Beanpot Feb. 9.

The Crimson will spend the final two weeks of the regular season on the road at Rensselaer and Union Feb. 12-13 and St. Lawrence and Clarkson Feb. 19-20.

The 2010 ECAC Hockey Championship is slated to begin with the best-of-three quarterfinal round Feb. 26-28. The semifinals and final will take place March 6-7 at the site of the highest remaining seed. The Crimson has hosted the final two rounds of the last two ECAC Hockey tournaments.

The NCAA Championship regional round commences March 13, followed by the Frozen Four in Minneapolis, Minn., March 19 and 21. Harvard has qualified for six of the last seven NCAA tournaments and has reached the Frozen Four on four occasions during that same time span.